Cellular telephone handsets and smart phone handsets have within them a microphone that converts input sound pressure waves produced by the user speaking into the handset, into an output electrical audio signal. The handset typically has a housing with an opening through which incoming sound pressure waves created by the user's voice can reach the microphone. This opening, however, can also allow for entry of rapid air bursts when, for example, the phone unintentionally and forcefully collides with a flat surface or a user tries to clean the device with a high pressure air flow. If these rapid air bursts reach the microphone, the transducer experiences a sudden acoustic shock that, in some cases, can damage a flexible diaphragm and/or a rigid back plate, found within certain microphones, which are not designed to withstand such a force.